Traveling the World One Day at a Time

Online Communities

February 06, 2009

I joined Twitter almost two years ago. I remember exactly where I was too. In an Etap hotel just outside of Marseilles. I was introduced to it by @arincrumley, one of the creators of Four Eyed Monsters. That was the same day I started my blog. But at that point, it was so slow and painful to twitter from a Blackberry, I didn't bother.Since then, I've been so busy with moving, traveling and the like, that it only barely hit my radar. I figured when I was more settled and finally thought of good use for Twitter, I'd wait to get involved. Then I started receiving notices that people were following me on Twitter.

"Following what?" I wondered. Still more followed, and finally, my curiosity got the best of me. I logged onto my account.

That was about ten days ago, and now I am hooked. So what good is twitter? I'll tell you!

1. Work and Personal Benefits

It's like a huge online cocktail party with tens of thousands of people chatting 24 hours a day. You are always connected to people with similar interests, both work and personal, all over the world. I'm in touch with others interested in yoga, gardening, sustainable development, art and teaching.

So far I have learned endless amounts about the technical side of building a better blog, how to use Twitter, Wordpress and how to work public relations and social media outlets. Thanks @DaivRawks. This man, Daiv Russell-Ninja Nerd has almost 20K followers and somehow manages to keep up with them all. He offers sound advice on anything technical. I sent him a question once and was amazed to see his response within a few minutes.

@skydiver, by the way, is Peter Shankman, founder of Help A Reporter. If you are a writer of any type, business owner, website analyst, really anything, you need to check out his site. I'd also like to mention that I met him twice. First, at the 1996 Democratic convention in Chicago. The second time, I was struggling to carry my child and her stroller down the subway stairs at the Columbus Circle station in NYC just before we left to travel. He stopped to ask if I needed help.

I've met other travelers. @collazoprojects. Julie Shwietert, a writer and traveler from NYC and Puerto Rico writes wonderfully on her blog about all topics ranging from travel to politics and more.

I met Julie through the Twitter posts of @umarket of Uncornered Market fame. Their website follows their absolutely amazing travels through tens of countries. Their thoughtful articles and striking imagery make you want to visit. If you can't, though, you have this sneaking feeling that you've been with them through China, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Latvia and so many other places I simply cannot list them here.

There's also @ARoadRetraveled. @tripwolf. @travelojos. I've chatted and compared travel notes with all these people. In addition, each has a website where you can learn more about their experiences traveling and perhaps one day, I will write for some of them or they will guest blog for me.

Sometimes, you find inspiration.@kendrathornbury, for example, is a Life Coach, Spiritual Guide, Manifest Mastermind Guide, Law of Attraction Guru, SpiritAlive Creator, Joyous Being, Free Spirit, Humanitarian, Alive Enthusiast (as her profile says). Each day, she posts wonderful statements about how to move yourself more freely through life and reach your goals.

"When you are aware and awake in the moment, you have the leverage to create whatever you want. U are not a slave to circumstances," she posted last night. And there is such a lovely picture of her smiling on the beach on her website.

I've met other parents.@fogandthistle Another NYC mom. She has a blogand Etsy shop where she sells original papercut designs. I plan to buy one of her gorgeous nightlights. Lila has been asking for one for quite a while and her room here in Salta is so unbelievably dark at night.

And finally, it's a great source of news. I'm following all sorts of news outlets such as @nytimes, @suntimes, @guardiannews. And BOOM, all headlines with links are sent directly to me."But why do I need all this information?" I'm sure many of you are still asking yourselves. I've already seen more visitors to my blog. And, well, I guess I may as well tell you. I have a new project brewing. It involves an expansion of the What Lila Sees section of this website. I'm aiming to launch in June.

There are other less obvious benefits to Twitter as well.

1. Improved Memory

Imagine. You are following the information threads of anywhere from 10 to 10,000 people. It's a constant stream of information. Then one day, you see a reply from someone line @CouchsurfingOri saying "Could've been that stalker! :)"

What? I had no idea what he meant. Was that message intended for someone else? I had to think back to all my interactions with him and all the things I posted in the past day or so. Then I got it! I posted something about that horrible yowling outside our casita last night. "What the hell was it?" I wondered.2. Teaches PatienceYou can't ask everything at once. And when you do make contact with some, you can't just blurt out right from the beginning: "I have the great idea. You really should help me." No, you have to start chatting, understand who the person is, what they do. You have to get to know them as you would in real life, but on Twitter, you rarely receive the immediate response you would at a real cocktail party. You have to wait for your answer.

3. Encourages Positive ThinkingThere is a real culture of Pay It Forward. I've noticed the things that attract the most interest, tend to benefit as many people as possible. @twitchhiker, for example. He's a reporter for the Guardian who intends to travel for a month soley with the help of Twitter tips. All money he raises goes to charity.

People credit each other for posting solid articles and thoughts by this funny little thing called retweeting. By retweeting, you also help yourself. The person you credit is thankful and passes along your name. The people who appreciate what you've passed along thank you as well.

And since this is a site so often used for marketing, almost everyone I've encountered presents a positive, helpful face. You have to be open to people and you never know from where a good idea will arise, so most people are willing to have conversations and help. In ten days, I have yet to see anyone be anything but decent and constructive. A far cry from You Be Mom, where people remain anonymous and tend to tear each other apart.4. It Is the DOS Version of the FutureBest yet! Twitter is it's own world with it's own rules. In it, you open yourself to a constant stream of information from so many disparate sources. It's absolutely dizzying. Hot dang if I don't feel like Johnny Mnemonic, only the yakuza aren't chasing me and presumedly my head won't explode if I don't find the key to the data stored in my head.

One day, I'm betting we'll receive this feed directly into our brains. There, we'll meet our Twitterverse Tweeples wearing brilliant 3D avatars lounging on sumptuous digital couches and sipping martinis while sorting through the latest information about some big business mogul releasing a horde of insects into a crowd or accept a request to speak to a classroom of children in the South of France or Guam. I imagine my eyelids will be quickly fluttering as I receive the information.

December 26, 2008

When Lila was first born, I posted on a website called Urban Baby, asking if anyone in our neighborhood wanted to meet up for coffee. A few people answered the post. We met. Then more answered. Then we met. Word of mouth spread about our meetings and before I knew it, I had upwards of 150 parents (mostly moms) on an e-mail list I sent out weekly. We had rotating play dates, outings to the park. A babysitting coop.

When I started getting bad migraines when Lila was almost two, I just couldn't keep it up anymore, so the e-mails and get togethers stopped. Then again, by that time, none of us needed the support we needed when our babies were, well babies. We had toddlers. Some went back to work; some stuck to smaller groups they met through the play dates. On and on. Still, my closest mom friends are from those early days.

But the thing about Urban Baby -- and it's non-censored off shoot, You Be Mom -- is there is absolutely no sense of culpability. You are totally anonymous and can say what you want, when you want to anyone you want. It's another sort of Girls Gone Wild, I tell you. I believe many of the woman post when drunk, too. So it's sort of Girls Gone Wild, Ten Years Later.

Through there, I have been insulted, told I must be absolutely awful in real life, accused of "flipping out" and been told "how sorry for my children" people feel. Water off a ducks back, really.

Ok, so I know you're all asking. "Why would I bother going to a site like that?" I even debated whether or not to post links to these sites because they can be such a time-suck and often pointless, but somehow thought that would be dishonest. I also figure, if someone wants to check it out, laugh, post or be drawn into some ridiculous argument about being fat or a complaint about guest bringing gross dishes to a well planned Christmas dinner, who am I to stop you? I'm also a bit embarrassed to show you what I sometimes do with my time when I could better use that time writing or really just staring into space.

Then, the other night, I was bored, didn't feel like working, but didn't feel like going to bed yet, so I logged on. I posted something inane about how I wanted Chinese food -- something I almost never want -- but hadn't seen a Chinese restaurant anywhere.

Someone posts back. "Me too. We're in Argentina." I swear, I just thought it was someone messing with me. But then, how could she know who I am? How could she even know I was in Argentina?

"We are too," I respond.

"SHUT UP," says this anonymous person, " We're in BA."

"Recoleta," I type.

It turns out, we are both in Buenos Aires for a month, living literally two blocks away from each other. We met today with kids in tow for a play date at the local park.

She is lovely. Her twins, two adorable, sweet five year old girls and Lila got along famously. It took less than a minute for the three of them to run off together. And they played happily the rest of the day together. Through the park, through lunch and then through both dads joining us at another restaurant for a bottle of wine in the warm summer evening.

Of course, it should come as no shock to anyone that I would meet someone through the internet, Couchsurfing and all, but this one suprised even me. It's one thing to post in Brooklyn, where it's wall-to-wall moms and all on You Be Mom. No one will admit it. Everyone says, "Oh, me! I dont' do that anymore."

But who would have thought, another New York mom with similar interests, similar outlook, who get along well, whose children get along well meeting through this horribly snarky site?

Now that I've met her, though, I think I'm done. I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. Why would I?